As part of the turnaround plan announced in January
2002, Ford announced it would roll out about 65 new North American products
during a five-year offensive. Scheele reiterated that goal during the keynote
speech at the New York Auto Show. But now he’s confident he can actually achieve
it. The automaker is completely reorganizing its product development process, he
announced, replacing six “loosely-tied” groups with one North American
operation. Combined with other efficiency measures, it should result in “twice
the number of products compared to the traditional rate of introduction,” and
without having to increase Ford’s design and engineering headcount. Since the
goal of launching 65 products hasn’t changed, it left some observers confused.
But a Ford source later explained that 15 months ago, Ford’s top management laid
out a plan they could then “only hope to achieve.” With the new product
development process, they now feel confident they’ll live up to their word.

Hybrids can’t get by simply promising better fuel
economy, cautioned Ford Division General Manager Steve Lyons, as the automaker’s
first gasoline/electric vehicle, the Escape HEV, took center stage at the New
York Auto Show. Hybrids also need to deliver great design, performance and an
affordable price, he insisted. The Escape version, he promised, will do all
that. It features an 65 kilowatt I-4 gasoline engine, or roughly 100 horsepower,
mated with a 28 kw, or 45 hp, electric motor. The vehicle will be able to
operate in purely electric mode, run solely on gasoline, or combine both to
deliver peak acceleration similar to the Escape V-6. The government rates the
new vehicle at 35 mpg in the City cycle, and the Escape HEV will quality as a
SULEV under current emissions rules.

TheCarConnection got a good, firsthand look at what
could be the car of the future, or at least Honda’s interpretation of it, when
it went for a drive in the FCX fuel cell vehicle. Equipped with a 75 kilowatt
fuel cell and an energy-storing ultra-capacitor, the Honda hatchback
“accelerates up to 30 faster than a Civic and about as well as a Civic above
30,” noted Stephen Ellis. The manager of alternative fuel vehicles at Honda, he
accompanied TCC on a drive up the West Side Highway. The biggest news: the FCX
was virtually indistinguishable, while driving, from a Civic —
except for its
near silent operation. Honda has notably subdued the whining noise other fuel
cell vehicles suffer from due to the compressors that pump fuel into the fuel
cell stack. Storing about nine pounds of compressed hydrogen onboard gets about
175 miles range, and larger, higher pressure tanks are under development.
Despite the progress Honda has made with the FCX, Ellis cautioned that it could
be a decade before significant numbers of this or a future fuel cell vehicle hit
the road.